Lets thank all those "rich" people for being here. They keep the economy moving and help the rest of us get paid. I hope we get a crap-ton more of them. It means we all have a better chance of getting into the top 20%.

I'd be very interested in advice from those that know how to invest. I'm want you'd call financially retarded, make way too much to be this poor. I'm guilty of spend now save later but I've gotten much better at saving but am clueless how to invest, wisely???

I'd be very interested in advice from those that know how to invest. I'm want you'd call financially retarded, make way too much to be this poor. I'm guilty of spend now save later but I've gotten much better at saving but am clueless how to invest, wisely???

Don't worry about it. Go take a 15yr note on a boat you can afford, hell finance the trailer too. Then buy your wetsounds stereo and custom trailer rims on your credit card.
And after all that, gotta have a sweet ass tow rig, so take a 2nd on the house for a badass f250 platinum.
Then to finish it all out, you gotta finance in the wheels, tires and lift, cuz you can't be Rollin stock at the launch ramp.

Then after 3 years when you are losing everything, including the house you took a 2nd on for that badass tow rig, and you're wife is divorcing you, you can start banging some 19year old chick you met while she was underage at the bar, who assumes you have money.

I'd like to thank the "spend more to be a baller crowd" as well. When their bubble bursts I can take a benefit of buying their stuff for pennies on the dollar. That's how we easily afforded our house - bank owned due to the previous owner blowing all his cash and not able to pay the note.

i think its also about the location you live. I was originally from PA and to have a really nice home in a top end school district, your taxes are really high. Now living in the south, you get so much more for your money and have the additional free cash to buy the more expensive boat. I use to pay 12k a year in property tax alone. Now i pay 1800 a year. We went from a 1500 sq ft home to 4000. my mortgage is less, etc etc

Also, just because you make 30k a month does not mean you get to keep it. lol its scary how much taxes you pay and how hard you work to get to the 1% ers Then i45% of it to be taken away in taxes. Most of my friends that are making 200k plus are in a sales position or doctors,lawyers, vps (most vp's or management don't make the big bucks) the reps do. There is always jobs available for sales reps willing to be total commission with no salary and no expenses and you too can make 400k plus a yr.

I think its pretty obvious through the years that some people have something against anyone who has a lot of money: the "cake eaters" on tonka, the 30 something executive working downtown getting his porsche valeted every day at the office.... basically anyone who is outside thier own little bubble.

I think there is a lot of skewed perception when we see people with these high dollar items. I have a few examples I'll share.

1. The president/owner of the company I work for drives one of the loaded up Panamera 4's to work. If I didn't know what I do... I'd probably think... wow, what a rich snob. The reality is, he started a single location business with a small sum of borrowed money and has grown it to a 116 locations across the world. Dude is humble beyond belief. The companies "if your not growing, your dead"

2. When I first started riding I would see this dude on the lake with a brand new white 24ssv, pulling it with a macked out duramax diesel. I had the "i want that" feeling beyond belief. Long story short, I now ride with the dude from time to time. He started a small little graphics company before "wraps" were really a thing and now it went huge and he has big corporate accounts.

3. Similar situation as #2. Met a dude out on the lake through here actually, baller looking boat, I was starry eyed beyond belief. Now.. one of my best friends. One of the most humble dudes I have ever met.

Being kinda new the "big city life", I just assumed most of these folks wouldn't have anything in common with a small town dude like myself... Even if they have this gross amount of perceived money, they are just normal people. Apparenlty for some... its too difficult to see beyond that.

funny thing, most that make big money live way below there means. They have nice things, but if you take there average income and match it to there monthly bills, you will find, its the folks making 50k to 100k a year living way over there means. If you make 20k a month and take home 12k, you can have a
2k mortgaga
500 truck payment
700 boat pament
500 in phone, gas, electric
500, fuel money
1500 a month in spending money and still have 5k plus a month to put away. in a 4 years you have 250000k making money in the bank and the freedom to play.

@Bryce not sure how you are at $880. Thought maybe my softwares calculator was funny so tried 3 online ones and all three where exact. If you go to 6 years/ 72 months its $873.71. I bet that must be where you are at. Numbers really can't vary to much on a simple interest loan. Can change a few bucks either way depending on when the payment is made during the month and length of time till first payment. But not a couple hundred. You must be at 72 months as that works out really close.

You don't have to be rich. I have been upgrading boats since I was 17 (I'm 33 now). I had a 2010 VLX that was essentially paid for when I stepped up to the MXZ last year. We have accumulated a lot of boat equity over the past 15 years--$50K plus. That makes the boat payment on a MXZ something we can handle.

I think there is a misconception that when people complain about the rich that they are talking about people who make 500K or even a couple million a year and can buy a 120K wake boat with cash. Those are almost never the rich people that are complained about. Those are rich people running small to medium businesses who probably do provide some good jobs to Americans. The problem is when you get people collecting billions of dollars per year in giant conglomerate businesses that squash these small/med businesses and send jobs to China so they can undercut any small business competition that is left with cheap labor. After you're making a few million a year, you can buy everything you'll ever want pretty quickly except for one last thing which is power. Power is very expensive but there are too many people who can afford it right now. Our politicians are all bought and paid for as a result. Then we wonder why the government is so screwed up no matter who is elected. Everyone politician has a price and right now there are so many multi-billionaires with so much money that there is always someone who can afford to buy the next politician. These aren't wake boarders and they don't buy wake boats. None of these guys are members of Wakeworld and your job probably doesn't depend on any of these guys.

For me - 25 years of hard ass work to get to this point. Helps with a wife of 23 years (no divorce) and kids later in life. Always lived conservatively, but we like nice stuff so we take care of it. We think/talk every major decision out and educate ourselves the best we can about big decisions. We are old school - we plan for the future, don't spend beyond our means and enjoy the life that we live today

With plastic cupholders and no touch screens or cool bells and whistles? Uh, it's ridiculously overpriced!

It also has 2 pair of Rev 410s, surfgate, metallic accents, tricked out trailer. For a 24 footboat wiht all that it's not badly priced at all. name me another 24ft boat wake boat, optioned like that, for less.

MB F24 Tomcat? Well, not a direct comparison since MB actually uses vinyl on their panels, instead of plastic inserts, and has lots of billet aluminum.

The MB has the 450HP engine, the Rev410s( or something comparable), Surfgate( or something Comparable), Metallic accents, and the blinged out trailer? How much? I'm willing to bet, since MB doesn't have a surf system, if you took surfgate out they'd be very close in price optioned the same.

No you're just wrong, say what you will. The boat prices all around are too high, but the A24 pricing here is relatively low for what you get compared to the rest of the class it's in. Sorry it has plastic cup holders, not exactly a feature I pay attention to, but it also has a great engine, stereo, surfgate, and insane wake. It's a steal in the 24ft class.

No you're just wrong, say what you will. The boat prices all around are too high, but the A24 pricing here is relatively low for what you get compared to the rest of the class it's in. Sorry it has plastic cup holders, not exactly a feature I pay attention to, but it also has a great engine, stereo, surfgate, and insane wake. It's a steal in the 24ft class.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, ok! You give me a link to a used boat in Canada for a comparison and I'm wrong. Did you buy this boat or something? I heard you were buying an LSV.

There's nothing rich about me. I've worked between 12 and 14 hours a day for at least 30 years or more. I've also been working since i was 13 years old. I bought all my clothes since i was 13. I had the cash saved up for my first vehicle including license and my own insurance when i was 16. Don't call me rich. I'd rather be called a Smart Hard Worker. Walk a mile in my shoes and that won't even get you through a 1/4 of my day. I can still work circles around the youth of today because i grew up in a different era. We didn't moan and groan we found a way to get it done. We never had our parents give us anything. We earned it. I have never had to have my parents bail me out because they taught me how to handle things by myself.I've never cared when people said i couldn't do something. I found a way to get it done.It's taken me 40 years to EARN what i have,so please don't call me rich.

Robert, believe me the hard working youth is still here. Granted we are few and far between. It's all in your raising. Work circles around me? That's a little far fetched. However, being able to go wake to wake at 120ft with no ballast? You got me :P. My story is similar to yours. I'll admit I come a VERY wealthy family. My grandfather owned 56 Save A Lot grocery stores and sold them all in one lick. My mother finances eagle buildings. (Those of you that know this business know how well it does) However, my grandfather drives a 1998 Nissan pickup with a giant hole in the side of it. He lives in a two bedroom one bath home with his wife. He could have let my family and I live the life the life that most people dream about. Instead he kept it all and made us work for every dime. I can say I wouldn't be half the person I am today if it weren't for him doing that. But guess what happens to his money once he is gone?? Oh yeah Ill be living the good life...NOT ha! Almost every penny will go back to our local town set up in a foundation to help if a new park/baseball field etc needs to be built. Since the people in our town helped him get started and become successful, he wants to give it back. Both my parents drive cars with 150,000+ miles on them. Could they buy brand new ones every year? You bet! Could they buy me a brand new one every year? Without a doubt! But to be honest I wouldn't have it any other way. With that said, I retract my statement about you being a rich un humble old man...jk jk your just in your prime! Ha cheers

There's nothing rich about me. I've worked between 12 and 14 hours a day for at least 30 years or more. I've also been working since i was 13 years old. I bought all my clothes since i was 13. I had the cash saved up for my first vehicle including license and my own insurance when i was 16. Don't call me rich. I'd rather be called a Smart Hard Worker. Walk a mile in my shoes and that won't even get you through a 1/4 of my day. I can still work circles around the youth of today because i grew up in a different era. We didn't moan and groan we found a way to get it done. We never had our parents give us anything. We earned it. I have never had to have my parents bail me out because they taught me how to handle things by myself.I've never cared when people said i couldn't do something. I found a way to get it done.It's taken me 40 years to EARN what i have,so please don't call me rich.

In reference to Chases grandfather, I have to ask one question. Why give up so so much of your most valuable asset on earth (Time) to make a boat load of money and than not enjoy it and buy nice things? I truly don't mean it as an insult or anything like that, I have just never understood the mentality of working so so hard and than being cheap. I understand that cars don't bring some people happiness or houses or whatever but there still must be things for that money to buy that will make a person happy or that they will at least enjoy. You can't get the time of younger years back. If you are going to give that away, there better be something in return. I'm of the mentality that if you work smart AND hard, you can have both money AND time to do the things you love with the people you love.

My father in law gave me some very good advice when I was younger. He said "No one on their death bed will tell the ones they love that they wish they had spent more time working". They will only wish they had more time to spend with those people.

You all keep working. Ill just keep having kids with my girlfriend and reap the benefits that single at home moms get from the government. It's awesome the more kids we have the bigger the checks get!! Plus FREE milk and cheese!!!!

I think it is all about moderation...work to live, don't live to work. I was way guilty of the latter in my 20's and early 30's, but more because I wanted the freedom to not have to work if I so choose before I'm too old to enjoy life. I would suggest to the younger people to skew towards enjoying life a little more, time you cannot get back, if you enjoy what you do for a living you'll have more money than you'll need, & you'll just croak and leave it to your kids (don't do that!) I might have been overcompensating the last 7 years or so though in the fun department. Do they do liver transplants?

You all keep working. Ill just keep having kids with my girlfriend and reap the benefits that single at home moms get from the government. It's awesome the more kids we have the bigger the checks get!! Plus FREE milk and cheese!!!!

Where you located at? Mind if I swing by for a grilled cheese sandwich? Love that govt cheese!

In reference to Chases grandfather, I have to ask one question. Why give up so so much of your most valuable asset on earth (Time) to make a boat load of money and than not enjoy it and buy nice things? I truly don't mean it as an insult or anything like that, I have just never understood the mentality of working so so hard and than being cheap. I understand that cars don't bring some people happiness or houses or whatever but there still must be things for that money to buy that will make a person happy or that they will at least enjoy. You can't get the time of younger years back. If you are going to give that away, there better be something in return. I'm of the mentality that if you work smart AND hard, you can have both money AND time to do the things you love with the people you love.

My father in law gave me some very good advice when I was younger. He said "No one on their death bed will tell the ones they love that they wish they had spent more time working". They will only wish they had more time to spend with those people.

Unless greed and power make you happy. If so, than work away.

He prides himself on not being the type that has money and flaunts it. Which is pretty amazing. Most people would think he is homeless half the time. Sometimes do I wish I were flying around going wherever I wanted on private jets? Absolutely! But in the end the most important thing to him is FAMILY. Money will break families apart QUICK. So instead of letting our family get greedy and turn into snobs he chose family over a life of luxury. I wouldn't have it any other way. There isn't a single person in my family that I have a problem with at all. I think almost all of my family will agree that if he had spoiled us we wouldn't be half as close. For example. For 52 years straight 35 of us meet for Christmas each year and not a single one has ever missed a single year. Not many people can say that.

I think there is a misconception that when people complain about the rich that they are talking about people who make 500K or even a couple million a year and can buy a 120K wake boat with cash. Those are almost never the rich people that are complained about. Those are rich people running small to medium businesses who probably do provide some good jobs to Americans. The problem is when you get people collecting billions of dollars per year in giant conglomerate businesses that squash these small/med businesses and send jobs to China so they can undercut any small business competition that is left with cheap labor. After you're making a few million a year, you can buy everything you'll ever want pretty quickly except for one last thing which is power. Power is very expensive but there are too many people who can afford it right now. Our politicians are all bought and paid for as a result. Then we wonder why the government is so screwed up no matter who is elected. Everyone politician has a price and right now there are so many multi-billionaires with so much money that there is always someone who can afford to buy the next politician. These aren't wake boarders and they don't buy wake boats. None of these guys are members of Wakeworld and your job probably doesn't depend on any of these guys.

Hey chase if family was his priority and he built his wealth not being at work but by spending it with family than I have all the respect in the world for a guy like that. But if , like my grand father, he spent all his time away from family working and got together once or twice a year with family that's a different story.

This is a great discussion for the young guys to hear. Time on a boat with family is as good as it gets! Don't wait till your too old and don't think you need a new boat to do it. Start with what you can afford but don't let time pass you by....... Because it will.

Time on a boat with family is as good as it gets! Don't wait till your too old and don't think you need a new boat to do it. Start with what you can afford but don't let time pass you by....... Because it will.

I think the answer is that they aren't who they say they are. Rich people don't have time to post about how rich they are on a forum of this social status. They would only be posting on forums that charge a monthly/yearly fee or are invite only.

@Bryce not sure how you are at $880. Thought maybe my softwares calculator was funny so tried 3 online ones and all three where exact. If you go to 6 years/ 72 months its $873.71. I bet that must be where you are at. Numbers really can't vary to much on a simple interest loan. Can change a few bucks either way depending on when the payment is made during the month and length of time till first payment. But not a couple hundred. You must be at 72 months as that works out really close.

Interest. $57,000 divided by 60 months = $950/month. That's not calculating any interest at all. I'd say a math or number entry error got him to $880.

In the Denver Boat Show thread, there are Tige's with prices and monthly payments on the displays. It gives a little idea on what people are shelling out on a monthly basis for these things. Unfortunately, it didn't have the loan terms. Given the price and payment, they were looking like they were around 15 years at 5%.

Why the **** would any idiot pay more then $400/month on anything!! that's just stupidity!!!! do you even understand how financing works?!?! Do you understand how much interest you are paying for a boat that you can never get the value of the boat back if you tried when you sell it! ( And don't fool anyone, cause we all know you will sell it later, or lose it to the bank) that's just pathetic.

Why the **** would any idiot pay more then $400/month on anything!! that's just stupidity!!!! do you even understand how financing works?!?! Do you understand how much interest you are paying for a boat that you can never get the value of the boat back if you tried when you sell it! ( And don't fool anyone, cause we all know you will sell it later, or lose it to the bank) that's just pathetic.

Playing devils advocate here cause those are very hardline and rash comments.

Consider this: Why do mega-millionaires and billionaires sometimes finance things instead of buy them outright even though they have waaay more then enough money to do so? (it's not because they are stupid)

Same reason could apply as to why it is not only sound financially but a good idea for someone to pay more than $400/mo and the interest.

"Why the **** would any idiot pay more then $400/month on anything!! that's just stupidity!!!! do you even understand how financing works?!?! Do you understand how much interest you are paying for a boat that you can never get the value of the boat back if you tried when you sell it! ( And don't fool anyone, cause we all know you will sell it later, or lose it to the bank) that's just pathetic."
FE, where do you live? In your parents basement? Because thats the only way you are not going to pay more than $400/month for a place to live. I also don't mind paying $500/month on my truck because I pay it off more quickly and pay Less interest that way. All I care about is what interest rate I am paying and that I am Not underwater on anything I own!

Going back to the OP I became a rich person off of other's unfortunate situation or bad decision. I own 27 pawn shops across the US. I put the screws to each and every person that walks through one of my location doors! However, the decisions or series of unfortunate events that usually bring them in my door never get old. I still work in almost all of my stores even with the busy travel schedule I have. But most of it is spent though on recreational activity around the lake or coast fishing, diving, wakeboarding, etc.
I have some very good folks working for me as well and a great support staff of accountants. I actually just put the screws to a guy on the purchase of his new his 2014 G23 with 20 hours of use which he purchased the boat with inheritance money from a family relative, then lost his job the next month. He said he was so far underwater with other loans and credit debt that he now needs the cash back quickly to keep above water for the next several months and had to quickly reduce his assets (most of which were financed). I purchased the boat for $80K with another $6500 in stereo upgrades on the trailer.
So yes I put the screws to him and didn't blink and eye whatsoever. Almost forgot to say that I sold the boat 2 days later to an acquaintance for $118K. These kind of deals happen four or five times a day and range from the purchase of land, heavy equipment, vehicles, etc. I make any where from one dollar to $100K per transaction in some instances

Going back to the OP I became a rich person off of other's unfortunate situation or bad decision. I own 27 pawn shops across the US. I put the screws to each and every person that walks through one of my location doors! However, the decisions or series of unfortunate events that usually bring them in my door never get old. I still work in almost all of my stores even with the busy travel schedule I have. But most of it is spent though on recreational activity around the lake or coast fishing, diving, wakeboarding, etc.
I have some very good folks working for me as well and a great support staff of accountants. I actually just put the screws to a guy on the purchase of his new his 2014 G23 with 20 hours of use which he purchased the boat with inheritance money from a family relative, then lost his job the next month. He said he was so far underwater with other loans and credit debt that he now needs the cash back quickly to keep above water for the next several months and had to quickly reduce his assets (most of which were financed). I purchased the boat for $80K with another $6500 in stereo upgrades on the trailer.
So yes I put the screws to him and didn't blink and eye whatsoever. Almost forgot to say that I sold the boat 2 days later to an acquaintance for $118K. These kind of deals happen four or five times a day and range from the purchase of land, heavy equipment, vehicles, etc. I make any where from one dollar to $100K per transaction in some instances

I call BS on that story. Something smells really bad about that. We all know a dealer would have bought the G23 back for more than that. Even if he had to float it for month or two. Also most of the business men i know use 1 accountant for all of their locations. No business person in their right mind would only make a dollar on a deal. Their time is more valuable than that.

hey check out my album of a poor mans tow boat. This is truly from the day. Its our first inboard but it beats the I/o s we used to ride behind. We have a nice truck so that makes up for something ...right? lol